This semester, BEF will be working on a variety of tasks and providing various deliverables throughout the semester. These have been divided into milestones. These include:
Milestone 1: Rate of Climb Flight
- New Battery Installation (Using the newly purchased batteries from last semester we shall implement these to obtain a larger total flight time for the aircraft.)
- Systems Check (Prior to flight, perform a systems check and taxi flight to ensure that everything is working properly)
- Taxi Test
- Circuitry Assembly Test (In an effort to inform new members of the project about the electronics of the aircraft we shall have new members be evaluated on the aircraft’s systems after a lesson)
Milestone 2: Flight 2
- Post-Flight 1 Data Analysis (After performing our first flight of the semester, the team shall then begin to analyze the associated data.)
- Misc Repairs (Perform any needed repairs to the aircraft post-flight.)
- PixHawks Autopilot Research (In an effort to eliminate as many sources of error as possible, the Performance Team shall investigate the viability of using PixHawks’s built-in autopilot system for future test flights.)
- Flight 1 Report (After analyzing the data obtained from flight 1 the results shall be collated into an official report looking at how the aircraft performed with regard to the certain test flight parameter.)
Milestone 3: Wing Prototyping Phase
- New wing selection (Narrowing down potential airfoils for a new wing design)
- Wing Connection (Create a connection method for the new wing to work with an AL-37 frame)
- Star-CCM analysis of wing selections (Prior to final building, performing CFD analysis on selected wings to pick a final airfoil)
Milestone 4: Final Wing Assembly
Milestone 5: Symposium
Milestone 1 has currently competed and data analysis of the flight is underway.